For future vehicles, startup looks into holographic tech

WayRay, a startup pioneering holographic technology, envisions glass as the surface driving the future of in-vehicle entertainment. For the past decade, the company, headquartered in Zurich, has explored the use of holograms projected on windows as a way to create unique experiences for vehicle occupants.

"It dates back to 2012, when Vitaly [Ponomarev], our CEO, had this idea of actually making the head-up display, or any kind of information displayed in the car, a little bit more immersive and less distracting," WayRay Project Manager Michal Macuda told Automotive News. "That's basically how it started."

WayRay has raised $108 million in capital to date, including investments from Porsche Ventures and Hyundai Motor, Co. according to the company. It uses true augmented reality and deep-reality display technology to generate virtual images at any distance on multiple depth planes. The virtual images are generated by projecting a red-green-blue laser beam through a picture generating unit onto a holographic optical element, or foil, placed inside a transparent surface — typically a vehicle's windshield or side window.

"Hologram gives you this immersive feeling, so the wavefront, which is basically the light created by the hologram, makes your brain think that the object is real and that it is placed at some distance from where you are," Macuda said.

In December, WayRay, announced a partnership with Karma Automotive to integrate a new form of augmented reality head-up display technology in a fleet of the automaker's future vehicles. WayRay said it also is working with several undisclosed automakers to apply its technology specifically for in-vehicle entertainment, content and gaming experiences.

Amid the growing in-vehicle entertainment offerings across the industry, one of the distinguishing elements of WayRay's technology is that its experiences do not require VR headsets.

"Imagine you're sitting in your car, and you're looking through your windshield as if you are looking through it normally, and you can still see everything around you," Macuda said. "You are completely in the real world, so to speak."

He said the best example of WayRay's capabilities lies in its concept vehicle, the Holograktor. Unveiled in November, the concept is touted as the first vehicle developed for in-car entertainment in the metaverse, the term used to denote where the virtual and physical worlds meet.

"It's a three-seater, but it's not one in front, two in the back. It's two in the front, one in the back. And the front seats are pushed apart ... to give the [person] in the rear seat ... access to the to the windshield real estate, where we can overlay content and provide this immersive augmented reality user experience," Macuda said.

The Holograktor, conceived as a future ride-hailing vehicle controlled remotely, also has a retractable steering wheel, which enables the driver to join the other two passengers in a connected gaming experience.

"We don't believe that full autonomy is just round the corner," said Macuda. "We still think it's at least a decade away. Remote driving, which we partially tested and [have] proven could work, with a concept like this, could provide a really interesting bridge between where we are today and where we want to be with autonomous driving."